This invention relates generally to the field of portable soft golf cart enclosures, specifically to a golf cart enclosure design that easily wraps over the permanent cart roof, around an installed front windshield and adapts to an accessible rear club cover canopy. This design is easier for a person to install, remove and prepare for storage. The invention features a unique door opening technique that quickly and reliably opens and closes to protect the passengers from wind, rain and cold, while also improving entry and exit convenience.
Golf cart enclosures are utilized today to protect the occupants from wind, rain and cold. The enclosures generally cover cart windshields and openings in front, sides and rear with vinyl, cloth or other materials.
Golf carts typically have a hard top roof to protect the occupants from the sunlight. Golf cart enclosures generally attach to or are supported by the cart roof and have side panels that are secured to the body of the cart
Golf cart enclosures today are one of two types. One type is installed semi-permanently and remains on throughout the cold weather season. The second type is portable and loosely shaped to fit most cart manufacturers. The portable enclosures tend to be either over-the-roof models with four sides or under-the-roof models with three sides.
Most portable patented golf cart enclosure products in the market today, are four sided and slip over the entire golf cart frame. This process typically requires two people to install and remove for storage and becomes more difficult in high wind conditions.
A second patented design has three sides and attaches under the cart roof using straps or rails. This design requires significant installation time and effort to make the necessary connections and is not intended to be portable.
A third patented design attaches to the roof front support bars and rear roof support bars and is easily removable after a installing a semi-permanent fitting on the front roof support bars.
Most enclosures use zippered openings that typically have a closed end at the top to ensure the zippers can be reliably opened and closed. This closed end results in a very small opening for ingress and egress. The zippers must accommodate different degrees of tension to accommodate the different sizes and shapes of golf cart models, which affects in zipper performance during closing and opening and usually causes zipper failure over time.
Most golf cart enclosures have doors or sides that unzip and roll-up during good weather to enable easier ingress and egress. This vertical roll-up process was implemented to allow for airflow during improved weather and to enable easier ingress and egress.
Golf cart zippers are inherently unreliable. Because zippers are mechanical, they are prone to break, snag and tear. Most portable enclosures when installed can stretch a door side, which adds tension on the zippers and contributes to door zipper failure. The zipper teeth can get out of alignment and fail. Zippers also tend to separate from material over time, due to shrinking, caused by tension and weather. In short, there is a high probability that zippers will jam or fail over time.
Most golf cart enclosures today are sold in a storage bag, which is usually sized and shaped to create a small compact package for shipment and sale. This approach makes it difficult to re-fold the enclosure and place it in the original bag. As a result, most owners dispense with using the storage bag.
Therefore, a small portable golf cart enclosure that is easier to install, remove, and pack for storage and provides an improved method of ingress and egress is desired and needed.